/*
 * Terrier - Terabyte Retriever 
 * Webpage: http://terrier.org/
 * Contact: terrier{a.}dcs.gla.ac.uk
 * University of Glasgow - School of Computing Science
 * http://www.gla.ac.uk/
 * 
 * The contents of this file are subject to the Mozilla Public License
 * Version 1.1 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
 * compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/
 *
 * Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
 * basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
 * the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
 * under the License.
 *
 * The Original Code is Pointer.java
 *
 * The Original Code is Copyright (C) 2004-2011 the University of Glasgow.
 * All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Contributor(s):
 *   Craig Macdonald <craigm{a.}dcs.gla.ac.uk> (original contributor)
 */
package org.terrier.structures;
/** 
 * A base interface for all pointers 
 * @since 3.0
 */
public interface Pointer {
	
	/** Returns number of "things" that this pointer refers to */
	int getNumberOfEntries();
	/** Set the number of "things that the pointer refers to */
	void setNumberOfEntries(int n);
	/** Returns a textual representation of the pointer alone */
	String pointerToString();
	/** Sets the pointer within this object to that represented by
	 * the specified pointer
	 * @param p other pointer to update the pointer in this object
	 */
	void setPointer(Pointer p);
}
